Amazing Race 2012-It's an Emmy Winner So I Watched It. Thoughts and Predictions.

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I love "Amazing Race".

Let me say this again. I love, love, love "Amazing Race".

I have no idea why I've never watched it before.

I only began watching it this year because it won an Emmy.

It comes on at an odd time. It's not that Sunday nights are bad TV nights but everything tends to get mis-timed due to football games and this time of year we've got various playoff baseball games. I live and die by the DVR. Sunday night shows are tough to copy.

Like all reality shows, this one has some unique diversions.

Something called an "express pass" allows the holder to avoid any competition not desired and to walk around it as if having completed the challenge.

A "detour" is a challenge placed in the middle of a "race" that the contenders must compete in to continue on. Detours can only be entered by one contender of the pair.

Which brings us to the series' set up. The competition begins with 11 coupled contenders. Since I'm new to this series perhaps my astonishment over the couples would seem over the top to a seasoned Amazing Race viewer.

Twin Sisters

Goodness there's a set of identical twins, a great pair to enter this contest. There's a homosexual pair of goat farmers and that combination alone stops me cold in the description. There's a pair of Chippendale dancers, a monster trucker and his wife and a rock star and manager.

On each episode the contenders are challenged to find a final spot which will determine the order of their finish for that episode. They are given clues that lead them from one point to the other. These clues to the next destination are not simple commands. Often the first clue will order the contenders to, say, fly to Hong Kong.

Goat Farmers

The contenders must then check airplane flights, times and take-off details. It appears that the contenders are given some sort of money to get to the clue spot. This adds the challenge of getting to the locale within a specific range of funds.

I'm not at all sure about the backpacks. Everybody carries backpacks. I suppose that they must be ready to pick up and go at any time. Thus they must carry clothes and such on their backs so they can move quickly and on command. Still, the backpacks make me smile.

So these people are traveling around the planet, as I figure, flying here, taxi-ing there, running and looking for fortune tellers, engaging in challenges, looking for items in the clue, asking the natives questions, running and panting and eager to get through to the final jaunt which would have them end up in front of the show's host and to hear where they ended up in the contender placement for that episode.

Along the way the contenders can engage in express pass challenges and often have detours that can gum up the works.

In the first episode the contenders had to eat, dear Lord I had to look away-FROG FALLOPIAN TUBES!

And they had to eat every damn one of those things. It was awful to watch. Right there I'd lose that challenge.



Rob and Shiela

Even though I don't think The Amazing Race is for me as any kind of contender, it is something I very much enjoying watching.

I cannot begin to imagine the meticulous planning that goes into the logistics of that show. Bridges and roadways have to be cleared, detour challenges must be dreamed up and the characters participating in the race must be found and given their instructions.

This year the winner of the first challenge would be slotted to win TWO million dollars should they win the 2012 Amazing Race series. If this couple, Abbie and Ryan, do not win, the winning couple will then win ONE million dollars.

For chowing down on frog fallopian tubes, hell yeah, I'd take it.

Come back to this Blog as we'll be covering this series with intrigued eyes. Our commentary will reflect our intrigue.

"Amazing race" airs on Sunday nights, CBS, at 8 pm.

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